Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ The Russian military may begin conscripting prisoners as soon as they are released. A proposed 'special military register' will provide military recruiters with details of all convicts eligible for military service, but is also likely to offer new possibilities for bribery.⬇️

2/ Radio Free Europe highlights a recent announcement by the Russian Ministry of Defence of a new 'special military register' which will require Russian penal institutions to provide lists of prisoners to military registration and enlistment offices as they are released.

3/ After the Wagner Group was banned from recruiting prisoners in January 2023, the Russian MOD took over prisoner recruitment. It typically uses convicts as expendable soldiers in 'Storm Z' detachments – penal battalions which suffer huge casualties in kamikaze assaults.

4/ There were 433,000 prisoners in Russia's penal system as of 1 January 2023. The figure decreased by 32,000 from the beginning of 2022, reflecting Wagner's recruitment of convicts. At least 10,000 are said to have been killed.

5/ A representative of the prisoners' rights group Russia Behind Bars says: "It is possible that they may start conscripting people into the army directly from the [penal] colonies.

6/ "I don’t think this will happen quickly, but “special military registration” will in fact be entrusted to correctional institutions.

7/ "They need to formulate a programme, implement it, debug it, find employees who will sit on this “special” register, and establish interaction between the colonies and military registration and enlistment offices.

8/ "Usually everything goes slowly, and this initiative in the prisons will most likely start working only at the beginning of next year. Then they will be able to start going over everyone indiscriminately. They will have ready-made lists in their colonies.

9/ "And not everyone is included in them – only those who fall under certain criteria. Those who are sick, old and have prohibited articles [of conviction] – political and paedophilia – are excluded from them.

10/ "This scheme is a limitless opportunity for corruption for FSIN [Federal Penitentiary Service] officers. If [convicts] used to pay to be released on parole, now they will pay to avoid being included in the list and going to war.

11/ Here is the answer to the question of how to avoid mobilisation in prison – there's no way. If a person outside can receive a summons and not appear at the military registration and enlistment office, then a prisoner will not have such an opportunity." /end

Source:
severreal.org/a/platit-chtob…